Ooty, in the
Nilgiris range, is regarded as the "Queen of Hills". The
word Nilgiri is derived from two Sanskrit words ‘Nilam’ means
blue and ‘Giri’ means hill. The literal meaning of the Nilgiris is
‘The Blue Hills’. Ooty with an attitude of 7600 feet, is also called
Ootacamund or Udhagamandalam. This beautiful and all season hill resort was
founded in 1821, by John Sullivan, the then Collector of Coimbatore. Ooty is one
of the important hill stations of South India and it is popularly called as the
Switzerland of South India.

The entire
Nilgiris range is cladded with tropical, semitropical and temperate vegetation.
The range is also rich in grasslands, interspersed with shola vegetation. The
summer temperature of Nilgiris varies between 10o C and 27o C
and the winter temperature varies between 0oC and 21oC.
One can really experience the biting cold and frosty nights from November to
February. Vast expanses of tea estates can be seen in Ooty. Temperate vegetables
are also grown in the region.

Ooty is
enriched with dense forest, ever-flowing springs, cool climate and scenic
beauty. It is said that the pleasant weather and natural beauty of the hills
inspired Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Mysore State,
to build a summer palace at Ooty and called the area as Fern Hill. A portion of
the land owned by the Maharaja was gifted to the Government of Karnataka. The
Karnataka Horticulture Department is now located there.

The
Karnataka Horticulture Department

The Karnataka
Horticulture Department has an area of around 30 acres at Sudarshan - Fern Hill
area and 10 acres of land at Mysore House, which is under the control of the
Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Protocol), Government of
Karnataka. Here, the Department of Horticulture is maintaining the ornamental
gardens, lawns, nursery and fruit orchard. The topiaries found in this garden
are ajudged as the best in the whole of the region. The beautiful lawns and
scenic beauty of the Fern Hills attract visitors from all over India and abroad.
It also has ample collection of exotic and indigenous flowering plants,
ornamental plants such as Magnolias, Camellias, Pines, Cinerarias, Calceolarias,
Gloxinias, Tuberous rooted Begonia, Cyclamen, Gerbera, Liliums and other
flowering plants which thrive well in the temperate regions.

The Karnataka
Horticulture Department has accommodation facilities for tourists. There are two
tariff rates for the guesthouses - one is on-season, from April - July and the
other is off-season from August - March. The Karnataka State Tourism Development
Corporation also runs a hotel and the DPAR (Protocol), Government of Karnataka,
provides accommodation facilities in the Karnataka Horticulture Department
premises. Reservation for these must be done at DPAR, Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore.